Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Fla. v. South Fla. Water Mgmt. Dist.

• Decision Date: 18 November 2010
• Docket Number: Nos. SC09-1817, SC09-1818.,s. SC09-1817, SC09-1818.
• Citation: 48 So.3d 811
• Parties: MICCOSUKEE TRIBE OF INDIANS OF FLORIDA, etc., Appellant, v. SOUTH FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT, etc., et al., Appellees. New Hope Sugar Company, et al., Appellants, v. South Florida Water Management District, etc., et al., Appellees.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

48 So.3d 811

MICCOSUKEE TRIBE OF INDIANS OF FLORIDA, etc., Appellant,
v.
SOUTH FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT, etc., et al., Appellees.
New Hope Sugar Company, et al., Appellants,
v.
South Florida Water Management District, etc., et al., Appellees.

Nos. SC09-1817, SC09-1818.

Supreme Court of Florida.

Nov. 18, 2010.

48 So.3d 815

Sonia Escobio O'Donnell, James Edwin Kirtley, and Clifton R. Gruhn of Jordon Burt, LLP, Miami, Florida; Joseph P. Klock, Jr., Gabriel E. Nieto and Juan Carlos Antorcha of Rasco, Klock, Renninger, Perez, Vigil, and Nieto, Coral Gables, FL, for Appellants.

Randall W. Hanna, Christine E. Lamia, Frederick J. Springer, Jason M. Breth, and Jolinda L. Herring of Bryant, Miller, Olive, PA., Tallahassee, FL, and Sheryl G. Wood, General Counsel, and Frank S. Bartolone, South Florida Water Management District, West Palm Beach, FL, for Appellees.

E. Thom Rumberger and Noah D. Valenstein of Rumberger, Kirk and Caldwell, Tallahassee, FL, on behalf of Florida Audubon Society, Inc. and National Audubon Society d/b/a Audubon of Florida and Nathaniel P. Reed; Michael F. McAuliffe, State Attorney, and Maureen Hackett Ackerman, Assistant State Attorney, Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, West Palm Beach, FL, as Intervenors.

Robert L. Nabors of Nabors, Giblin and Nickerson, P.A., Tallahassee, FL, Major B. Harding of Ausley and McNullen, P.A, Tallahassee, FL, and Joy Causseaux Frank, Florida Association of District School Superintendents, Tallahassee, FL, on behalf of Florida Association of District School Superintendents, As Amici Curiae.

QUINCE, J.

This case is before the Court on appeal from a circuit court judgment validating a proposed bond issue. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(2), Fla. Const. For the reasons expressed below, we affirm in part and reverse in part the circuit court's judgment.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In October 2008, the South Florida Water Management District (the District), filed a complaint in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit seeking validation of certificates of participation (COPs), pursuant to Chapter 75 of the Florida Statutes, in order to purchase land owned by the United States Sugar Corporation for the purpose of Everglades restoration. The court issued a notice and order to show cause and scheduled a hearing for December 12, 2008. After the District filed a supplemental complaint, the trial court issued an amended notice and order to show cause, which retained the December 12 hearing date. The state attorneys for each of the judicial circuits within the District's jurisdictional boundaries (Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Circuits) responded to the complaint on various dates. On December 11, 2008, the New Hope Sugar Company and Okeelanta Corporation (hereinafter collectively referred to as New Hope) served an answer and a memorandum in opposition to the complaint. The parties appeared before the court on December 12 and the court granted the District's motion to continue the hearing. The court subsequently entered a second amended notice and order to show cause, rescheduling the bond validation proceeding for February 6, 2009.

In January 2009, several other parties appeared in the cause. On January 9, 2009, United States Sugar Corporation (U.S. Sugar) served a notice of appearance and motion to intervene as a party defendant.

48 So.3d 816

On January 12, 2009, Dexter Lehtinen, already a defendant in his individual capacity, served a notice of appearance and answer on behalf of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida (the Tribe). Other individuals and the Concerned Citizens of Glades also filed notices of appearance and answers to the complaint. The National Audubon Society and Florida Audubon Society served a notice of appearance and a notice of intervention. Accelerated discovery proceedings took place between December 2008 and February 2009. Various motions and memoranda of law were filed by the parties in February 2009.

The validation hearing was held over a number of days in February, March, July, and August of 2009. Counsel appeared on behalf of the District, New Hope, the Tribe, the state attorneys, Concerned Citizens of Glades, the Audubon Society, Nathaniel P. Reid, and U.S. Sugar. In the midst of these proceedings, various parties filed motions to abate the proceedings and reopen them for the court to consider new evidence regarding a modification of the transaction, which the court granted. The parties engaged in more expedited discovery and filed more motions during this time.

On August 26, 2009, the circuit court issued its final judgment, validating the COPs in the amount of $650 million, an amount sufficient to purchase 73,000 acres of property from U.S. Sugar. The order contained eight pages of factual findings and sixteen pages of legal conclusions. The court found that the District's responsibilities include restoring and cleaning up the Everglades ecosystem; the District's Governing Board had adopted resolutions amending the District's five-year plan to include acquisition of the U.S. Sugar lands, establishing a master lease-purchase program, and authorizing the issuance of COPs to finance these transactions; all of the meetings related to this matter had been open, public, and duly noticed. The court also found that under the master lease-purchase agreement, the District will purchase the property and ground lease the property to a nonprofit Leasing Corporation. In turn, the Leasing Corporation will lease back the property to the District, which will manage the property and make improvements to it. Under the agreement, the District must determine annually whether to appropriate funds to pay the Leasing Corporation for the annual rental of the property, and the District regains possession of the property at the end of the ground lease. Additionally, a Master Trust Agreement was executed to issue COPs and to hold the proceeds from the COPs in trust to pay the costs of acquiring, constructing, and installing facilities on the sites. The COPs are secured by the lease payments. The court concluded that the District has the legal authority to issue the COPs, that the COPs will serve a legal purpose (water storage and treatment), and that the issuance of the COPs complies with the requirements of law.

In June 2009, pursuant to sections 120.569 and 120.57, Florida Statutes (2009), and rule 28-106.201 of the Florida Administrative Code, New Hope requested a formal administrative hearing challenging the District's purchase of land from U.S. Sugar. Later, the Tribe filed a similar request. The District consolidated the parties' separate petitions for administrative hearing and dismissed them with prejudice for lack of standing. Both New Hope and the Tribe filed notices of administrative appeal, requesting that the district court grant them a formal hearing for their administrative law claim. The District filed an all writs petition, asking this Court to transfer the administrative appeals cases from the district court because the cases deal with the same issues presented

48 So.3d 817

in the bond validation proceedings. We granted the petition and transferred the cases.¹

In September 2009, the Tribe and New Hope filed separate notices of appeal regarding the bond validation proceeding. We granted the District's unopposed motion to consolidate the two bond validation appeals. We heard oral argument from the parties in April 2010.

ISSUES AND ANALYSIS

The parties raise a number of issues regarding the validity of the COPs, including: whether the trial court's findings of fact are complete; whether the trial court should have considered the economic feasibility of the project to be funded by the COPs; whether the COPs serve a public purpose; whether the transaction violates various constitutional provisions; whether the proposed financing structure is legal; whether COPs may be issued to purchase an option to buy certain property in the future; and whether the District may legally convey purchased lands to municipalities.

Judicial inquiry in a bond validation proceeding, both at the trial court and this Court, is limited to determining: (1) whether a public body has the authority to issue the subject bonds; (2) whether the purpose of the obligation is legal; and (3) whether the authorization of the obligation complies with the requirements of law. See City of Gainesville v. State, 863 So.2d 138, 143 (Fla.2003). This Court reviews the "trial court's findings of fact for substantial competent evidence and its conclusions of law de novo." Id. (citing Panama City Beach Cmty. Redev. Agency v. State, 831 So.2d 662, 665 (Fla.2002), and City of Boca Raton v. State, 595 So.2d 25, 31 (Fla.1992)). The final judgment of validation comes to this Court clothed with a presumption of correctness. See Strand v. Escambia County, 992 So.2d 150, 154 (Fla.2008). Moreover, the appellants have the burden of demonstrating that the record and evidence fail to support the lower court's conclusions. See Wohl v. State, 480 So.2d 639, 641 (Fla.1985). We consider the issues raised within this legal framework.

1. Findings of Fact and Economic Feasibility

The Tribe and New Hope argue that the factual findings made by the trial court in its order of final judgment are incomplete because the trial court failed to consider the economic feasibility of the project and because the court failed to recognize that the proceeds of the COPs will be used to purchase 73,000 acres from U.S. Sugar and not to finance infrastructure projects on the land.

In its conclusions of law in the final judgment, the trial court recognized that "the economic feasibility of the project is outside of its scope of review." The court acknowledged that the Tribe and New Hope had made strong arguments that the project is economically impossible. The court also questioned the wisdom of seeking this large amount of COPs during the current economic times. However, the court...